By Anna Wilder
COLUMBIA — A Republican-backed redistricting consultant told S.C. House lawmakers that a proposed redraw of the state’s congressional map could backfire and harm Republicans more than help.
John Morgan, a demographer who previously helped redraw South Carolina’s maps and has decades of experience drawing congressional districts in other Republican-led states, testified Feb. 25 it is possible the state could lose a Republican-held district, shifting from the current 6-1 S.C. GOP majority in Congress down to 5-2.
Morgan’s comments came as members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus are seeking to redraw the congressional seats to weaken the sprawling Sixth Congressional District long held by Democrat James Clyburn, a leading Black voice in Congress.
The move also comes as Republicans nationally launched an effort to give President Donald Trump more GOP seats in Congress, starting with a re-draw of the map in Texas. Some Democratic states have followed suit.
In South Carolina, the bill’s sponsor, Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Goose Creek, said doing a re-map would make the Sixth District more competitive after Clyburn’s 33 years in office.
“We did it in a way that’s totally racially agnostic, so not take into account at all the melanin content of any voters skin,” Pace said during the introduction of the bill.
“This is not a plan that we give Republicans a dominant advantage in the Sixth District, that was never the goal,” he said. “The goal was always to make it fair and competitive.”
Under the proposal, the 6th District would greatly change its positioning, stretching from The Battery on the downtown Charleston peninsula through the center of the state and extend about 175 miles to Lancaster County at the North Carolina border.
The maps for other seats would change dramatically, as well.
Opponents said Pace’s map would harm communities of interest by linking districts across greater distances.
“It pretty much neglects every standard, traditional redistricting principle of representing communities of interest, and it is clearly designed to achieve a partisan purpose,” said Lynn Teague, a spokesperson for the League of Women Voters.
Supporters of the re-draw, such as Berkeley County Republican Party Chair John McGrath, said the bill is about “representation and accountability,” adding that the Sixth District has been drawn in a way that “protects a political outcome.”
Pace referenced a ProPublica article alleging that someone on Clyburn’s staff brought a hand-drawn map to Republican redistricting staff that was later used as a starting point for the 2021 congressional redistricting plan.
Pace and other supporters said that amounted to undue influence.
“When competition disappears, voters lose their most important tool for holding elected officials accountable,” CJ Westfall, chair of the Dorchester County GOP party, said to lawmakers during subcommittee testimony.
The plan would also reshape other districts, including the Third Congressional District held by Republican Sheri Biggs. That district would run along the western edge of the state across roughly a dozen counties on the Georgia border, stretching about 250 miles from near Hilton Head Island to the mountains of Oconee County.
Each of the seven districts would have roughly 786,000 residents, based on 2025 census estimates putting the state’s population at about 5.5 million.
Teague said the existing map already disenfranchises non-Republicans, but the proposal by Pace is “far worse.”
“It's hard to believe that this map was drawn with any fondness for competition, since the other districts all have more than 10 percent leans in favor of Republicans,” Teague said.
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The subcommittee adjourned debate on the bill. Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, the House Judiciary Constitutional Laws Subcommittee chair, said he was unsure when the issue would return for consideration.
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